Previous research argues that earnings quality, measured as the unsigned
abnormal accruals, proxies for information asymmetries that affect cost of
capital. We examine this argument directly in two stages. In the first stage, we
estimate firms’ exposure to an earnings quality factor in the context of a Fama-
French three-factor model augmented by the return on a factor-mimicking
portfolio that is long in low earnings quality firms and short in high earnings
quality firms. In the second stage, we examine whether the earnings quality
factor is priced and whether insider trading is more profitable for firms with
higher exposure to that factor. Generally speaking, we find evidence consistent
with pricing of the earnings quality factor and insiders trading more profitably
in firms with higher exposure to that factor.